Columbia Sportswear will introduce new products with lower entry price levels and new technologies in Europe and the rest of the world. Noting that the purpose of this is to become more competitive and affordable, responding to consumers' demand for better value, Franco Fogliato, the newly-minted European manager of the company, denied press reports indicating that it was lowering existing price points in Germany and other countries.
The new strategy is a major reversal of a previous repositioning of the brand into a higher and more technical segment of the outdoor market. Fogliato said that Columbia has many new and relatively affordable products in the pipeline for spring/summer 2014 and autumn/winter 2015 that are the results of major investments in R&D and adjustments to the supply chain.
One of these is the Turbo Down, a combination of Columbia's well-known synthetic thermal insulation, Omni-Heat Reflective, and natural down. Using a patent-pending process, the two products are layered against each other to produce a quilted, baffled jacket that has the look, feel and comfort of a down jacket but performs in wet and dry conditions.
Columbia claims that this new technology will offer an unmatched warmth ratio, based on independent third-party tests conducted at the University of Oregon on similarly priced jackets by Marmot, The North Face and Patagonia.
Turbo Down will be introduced for autumn 2014 in 13 styles at interesting price points, ranging from €99.95 to €319.95 in Europe. At the top of the range, the Diamond jacket will feature an additional Omni-Heat Reflective layer on the inside of the outermost face fabric, doubling the reflective insulation and providing a visible reflection of Columbia's technology.
Columbia says that the Turbo Down solves the down versus synthetic question once and for all, but it will probably not be the only compromise on the market. Primaloft, the American supplier of insulation materials, is apparently on the verge of introducing a major alternative hybrid product in this sector.
